Battle Scars
by Day-Dreaming Writer
Summary: Peace has been declared, but even a war without a winner is not over without a price. Casualties, both fatal and not, are present in the lives of everyone in Tortall. After a personal request from her best friend's father, Kel travels to Masbolle to find that her secret love, Dom, has fallen into bitterness and despair after being injured in the war, becoming almost unrecognisable.


**Battle Scars**

_Day-Dreaming Writer_

* * *

Kel was worried. Not even a year after the killing machines had suddenly stopped working on the battlefield, the war had finished with Maggur being overthrown and assassinated by his own people. Apparently it wasn't just Kel who thought necromancy —especially necromancy using children's souls— was a horrible, immoral business. After the rest of Scanra found out about it (probably with a little help from The Whisper Man), Maggur's time as King of Scanra was over within a matter of months. From there, Scanra withdrew from Tortall's northern border and a representative was elected by the clans to engage in talks with the King in Corus, and peace was soon declared.

So really, Kel had no reason to be worried. If anything, she had a lot less things to be worried about. She had just been to Corus and the King had approved the refugee's request to change New Hope into a fortified, mostly self-sufficient town; and trade routes were to be established between the remaining soldiers patrolling the border from Fort Mastiff and the closest fiefs. The King had said that eventually a fief would have to be created to support the town and also close up that area of the border against attack, but that was not Kel's concern. She was a knight and a commander, not a mapmaker.

Her new orders were to take a month's vacation to see how New Hope went without her (or Merric, who had been sent a message to step down and just help out as a regular knight) for an extended period of more than just a few days. So again, Kel had no reason to be worried. Her presence at New Hope had been becoming less than necessary for a while now.

No, Kel was worried because eight months ago, Dom had been seriously injured in one of the last skirmishes of the war. He had been knocked from his warhorse after being struck by a specially designed arrow through his chainmail, and then was attacked by a 6ft tall Scanran wielding a mace. The mace had ended up making a massive mess of his right shoulder and the only reason Dom had not died was because Raoul managed to mow his opponent down with his warhorse and rescue him.

Regardless, Dom was left with an ugly scar from where the skin had regrown over his mangled flesh and despite the best efforts of the healers, limited mobility in his sword arm. Perhaps if he had been at the palace where there are multiple healers who could lend each other energy to heal major wounds he may have recovered better, but as it was he was forced into retirement at the age of 29 and returned to Corus to try and work out what to do next.

Unfortunately, the gods were not kind to him in Corus. He was shunned by a noblewoman he was courting, and after she spread horrible gossip about him, he fled to Masbolle and no one had heard directly from him since. The only reason Kel knew he was still alive and hadn't just vanished was because Duke Baird had pulled her aside and shown her a letter from his sister after explaining what had happened. Apparently, women only liked a certain type of scars. Kel almost wished she was spending her month's holiday at the palace, if only so she could track down the horrid woman who Dom had been courting and slap her. Didn't she realise how good a man Dom was? Didn't she know how lucky she was to have had so much of his affections that he would seriously court her?

Kel had had a lot of time to brood on this as, on the request of Duke Baird, she was on her way to Masbolle. Even if she could only pass through, Dom's uncle wanted her to check on him, as apparently he had not only withdrawn from society, he was a supposed recluse in his own home!

Kel found this hard to imagine as his laughing face smiled in her mind every time she pictured him. In fact, she couldn't remember anytime that he had been seriously upset by something (other than the death of a comrade) for more than a few hours, let alone days, weeks, or months! Nevertheless, she knew that losing his career and way of life so abruptly, as well as being rejected for a battle wound that he had received protecting his country, would have been a big shock and had to have had quite an effect on him. How much so, she would soon see for herself. Despite all this, she was looking forward to seeing her secret love after so long, in an environment where no one would try to kill them at any moment. With this thought, as well as her feelings of concern, Kel urged Hoshi on.

* * *

Hi there.

This is something that came to me while I was considering something that Bracketyjack wrote about their view of Dom and Kel's possible relationship in their fanfic, 'Lady Knight Volant', which I personally think is brilliant. I would recommend you read it if you are looking for an in depth, adventure/romance that continues on from Lady Knight (however, just as a disclaimer, please note that 'Lady Knight Volant' deals with some pretty deep and scarring issues and has a borderline M rating). Basically this idea was inspired by elements of what kick started Kel and Dom's relationship in that fic, however this fic is in no way, shape, or form going to be anywhere near as grand, dramatic, or anything that could be claimed as plagarism.

So yeah, let me know what you think and I will try and deliver you a story worth reading :)

Thanks, Day-Dreaming Writer


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